Chlorine gets eaten up in 1-2days???

nalley · Aug 24, 2021

Merged threads - TFP Mod

I did algae treatments, drained pool 6in several times and vacuumed to waste the dead algae but still my chlorine only holds for 1-2 days?????

Bperry · Aug 24, 2021

nalley said:
I did algae treatments, drained pool 6in several times and vacuumed to waste the dead algae but still my chlorine only holds for 1-2 days?????

How are you testing your water? Chlorine is a consumable item and the sun will normally burn off 2-4ppm each day. If you have algae, you’ll need to follow the SLAM process.

setsailsoon · Aug 24, 2021

Nal,

Welcome to TFP!

Many end up here and most are completely frustrated with a messed up pool under care of a local pool store. We do pool care a lot differently. It's based on science and proven methods that are dirt cheap because they are genetic equivalents available at big box stores. Also we have a huge volunteer organization of true experts and very experienced pool enthusiasts that will advise you on doing all this yourself usually within a few days. Important to recognize is that we also don't sell anything. You can implement this methodology and get started by reading this.ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry. You will need to get a recommended test kit. You can get either of the two we recommend at multiple outlets. If your pool is cloudy or green we recommend you add 5 ppm per day of FC. A couple questions for you: What algae treatment did you perform? How are you chlorinating your pool currently?

Chris

V___25 · Aug 25, 2021

Hello and welcome! As Chris said, we do things differently here. Algae treatments from the pool store generally won't solve problems. And unless you have a saltwater generator, you should be adding chlorine daily to maintain your target free chlorine. I am one of the SWG-less people so I add about 40-60 oz of liquid chlorine a day, depending on how hot/sunny it's been. If I didn't add anything for 2 days, I'd be welcoming in algae.

You'll get tons of help here but the top advice will be to ditch the pool store, get your own quality test kit, find a good supply chlorine/bleach, and follow the SLAM process as needed.

setsailsoon · Aug 25, 2021

Nal,

If you want to implement TFP methods and you have algae time is of the essence. You will need a recommended test kit asap so you can accurately measure and maintain the high FC levels. These kits are not available at most pool stores. You also need a starting point set of test results. If you have high levels of CYA and/or metals you will need to replace at least some water first. So we don't want you to spend a lot of $ on chemicals you'll throw down the drain. Once you get your water in shape you'll be amazed at how easy it is to maintain a gorgeous pool for peanuts and just a little work on your pool each week. I did my pool for almost 8 years this way and it worked like a charm! Pool care is relatively simple and easy so long as you're not getting advised by pool stores that are also conflicted by wanting to sell you expensive potions. For example, many algae "treatments" also include soluble metals like copper that will eventually cause stains. These will require expensive metal removal treatments that cost big $$$ and are difficult so they may need to be repeated at even more $$$. So we remove algae very easily with high levels of chlorine for a short time. Waaaay cheaper with generic liquid chlorine and no long term side effects. Plus once you get set up with TFP methods you most often only require pH and FC adjustment every few days and monthly or less testing of other chemicals to be sure everything is balanced. We also need to know more about your pool and equipment. If you decide to use TFP methods it is very helpful if you can add this information in your signature. Here's how.

I hope you decide to join us like over 200,000 others have. And if you decide not to do this right now we'll always be here if you change your mind.

Chris

nalley · Aug 25, 2021

setsailsoon said:
Nal,

Welcome to TFP!

Many end up here and most are completely frustrated with a messed up pool under care of a local pool store. We do pool care a lot differently. It's based on science and proven methods that are dirt cheap because they are genetic equivalents available at big box stores. Also we have a huge volunteer organization of true experts and very experienced pool enthusiasts that will advise you on doing all this yourself usually within a few days. Important to recognize is that we also don't sell anything. You can implement this methodology and get started by reading this.ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry. You will need to get a recommended test kit. You can get either of the two we recommend at multiple outlets. If your pool is cloudy or green we recommend you add 5 ppm per day of FC. A couple questions for you: What algae treatment did you perform? How are you chlorinating your pool currently?

Chris

I did poollife brand algae kill, then 2 days later I did super flock treatment let circulate for 6 hours then shut pool off for 12 hours then hand vacuumed out algae. The added 5 gal liquid chorine. Just switched to liquid when this problem started. Was using Omni granular

nalley · Aug 25, 2021

My cya is 100-160. What’s best way to lower? I’ve drained down 6-8 em inches 5x over past week already and filled with fresh water

mknauss · Aug 25, 2021

As you have a vinyl liner, you can only drain down to leaving about 12 inches in the shallow end. That would have to be done at least two times.

Or , you can do an exchange. Read Draining - Further Reading

newdude · Aug 25, 2021

Hey nalley and Welcome !! Multiple drains are some folks only option but with each subsequent drain you are losing new water too, so the more you do, the less effective they become. Going with a larger drain like Marty suggested above will work better, or possibly a no drain water exchange listed in the article he posted.

TexEdmond · Aug 25, 2021

nalley said:
I did poollife brand algae kill, then 2 days later I did super flock treatment let circulate for 6 hours then shut pool off for 12 hours then hand vacuumed out algae. The added 5 gal liquid chorine. Just switched to liquid when this problem started. Was using Omni granular

Good job taking the first step towards really "owning" your pool. You're in the right place! The methods here work very well, but it's hard to give recommendations without knowing exactly what your water's chemistry is. Folks here just buy their own water testing kit and do it themselves, and it'll pay for itself the first time you don't go to the pool store. Although it's "free," pool stores have notoriously unreliable tests because of cross contamination, operator error, or bad calibration, and it's just a loss-leader for them to get you in the store to buy whatever expensive band-aid fix they feel like recommending. Also, even though there's a pool store a half mile from my house I can finish a fully accurate test quicker than taking a bottle over to the store and I don't have to put a shirt or shoes on. Now that I've got the PoolMath app, I calculate a precise measure of whatever chemical, dose the pool, then verify the results with my own test. It is very satisfying.

The good news is you'll basically only need to buy liquid chlorine and muriatic acid from here on out. You can stop using algae kill (that's what chlorine is for) and you (hopefully) will never have to flock and vac your pool ever again.

5 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine will raise your pool by around 15ppm FC, but as recommended above, put in 5-6ppm per day (2gal) until your test kit arrives. Until we know your CYA level it's difficult to know if 15ppm is way too much, or entirely not enough chlorine to shock and kill algae. I did a quick search and found at least one Omni Granular chlorine product is dichlor, meaning you've likely got a very high CYA level. The higher CYA goes, the more chlorine needs added in order to sanitize properly.

It's going to take a little work, but stick with us. We'll get you clean and clear in no time and you'll save a fortune compared to the old way of life.

setsailsoon · Aug 25, 2021

Nal,
Algaecide treatments are not recommended because the typically include a copper compound and a lot of "other ingredients" that are not named. One of the best things about TFP is all our methods are science-based. For this to work we absolutely need to know the ingredients so that doesn't work for us at all. Here is some information about copper and how to deal with it. Looking forward this is a good link about chemicals that are not recommended for use in your pool and an explanation about why.

I hope this helps.

Chris

cledee · Aug 25, 2021

Welcome to the forum, I would recommend you read up on ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry, checkout Pool School order yourself a reliable test kit and only use the recommended chemicals. Algaecides, especially the copper based ones are not recommended or needed and will cause you problems with staining down the road

nalley · Aug 25, 2021

TexEdmond said:
Good job taking the first step towards really "owning" your pool. You're in the right place! The methods here work very well, but it's hard to give recommendations without knowing exactly what your water's chemistry is. Folks here just buy their own water testing kit and do it themselves, and it'll pay for itself the first time you don't go to the pool store. Although it's "free," pool stores have notoriously unreliable tests because of cross contamination, operator error, or bad calibration, and it's just a loss-leader for them to get you in the store to buy whatever expensive band-aid fix they feel like recommending. Also, even though there's a pool store a half mile from my house I can finish a fully accurate test quicker than taking a bottle over to the store and I don't have to put a shirt or shoes on. Now that I've got the PoolMath app, I calculate a precise measure of whatever chemical, dose the pool, then verify the results with my own test. It is very satisfying.

The good news is you'll basically only need to buy liquid chlorine and muriatic acid from here on out. You can stop using algae kill (that's what chlorine is for) and you (hopefully) will never have to flock and vac your pool ever again.

5 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine will raise your pool by around 15ppm FC, but as recommended above, put in 5-6ppm per day (2gal) until your test kit arrives. Until we know your CYA level it's difficult to know if 15ppm is way too much, or entirely not enough chlorine to shock and kill algae. I did a quick search and found at least one Omni Granular chlorine product is dichlor, meaning you've likely got a very high CYA level. The higher CYA goes, the more chlorine needs added in order to sanitize properly.

It's going to take a little work, but stick with us. We'll get you clean and clear in no time and you'll save a fortune compared to the old way of life.

Thank you
According to pool store test last cya level was 150-160 ish. Pool is super clear and has always been but I’ve been on top of it adding chlorine every 2 days. I ordered test kit on Amazon today. I’ve been vacuuming to waste every day for past 3 days getting any spots of algae that settle. Yes I stopped using omni as I found out it was jacking up my cya level. Pool store never seemed to mind my cya level being at 160???
Is rural king chlorine a good one to use? All the chemicals I’ve used are below. But thinking about changing to rural king liquid chlorine as it’s half price as this one shown below. Thoughts ?

TexEdmond · Aug 25, 2021

nalley said:
Pool store never seemed to mind my cya level being at 160???

If the entire business model revolves around selling dichlor shock and trichlor tabs (both CYA products), it makes sense they'd have to ignore the real problem and come up with ever-more-complicated chemical schemes to kill the algae that will inevitably grow in a 150CYA pool with their "recommended" 1-4ppm FC level.

nalley said:
Is rural king chlorine a good one to use

No experience with that brand, but there's loads of threads here about how to choose the correct type of liquid chlorine, and how to make sure it's not expired. The vertex pool shock looks legit. I'm sure you've already considered strengths, looks like Rural King is 10%, and the stuff you have on hand is 12.5%. Buy whatever you can find plenty of, as long as it's Sodium Hypochlorite with no other surfactants / splash preventers / fragrance / stabilizers or UV protection (which are CYA)

I'd recommend returning as much of that chemical as you can, and considering selling / donating the rest to the open market. You might consider keeping some of the tabs, they do serve some purpose for vacation / extended periods of unwatched pool. Some CYA is good to keep around in case you ever want to slightly raise your levels or replenish after rain / splashout / winterizing. Tabs are probably enough for that but dissolve very slowly. The good news is you'll have a much simpler pool shed chem shelf now! You may want to hold on to the pH increaser until after you get your test kit, that looks to be soda ash. Good for raising pH and TA at the same time if you're low.

Wowzers. What won't it do?! It's shoxidizin' clarifuffer-izin' and flockulizin'! If it won't do windows or pull weeds I'll pass.

We generally ignore phosphate readings here. Yes, they're food for algae, but with correct monitoring and SLAM procedure, algae isn't an issue. More reading here if you'd like to make a more informed choice on getting rid of the PhosFree: Phosphate Removers - Further Reading

nalley · Aug 25, 2021

Is bleach and chlorine the same thing? I wouldn’t think bleach would be good with my vynil liner ?

mknauss · Aug 25, 2021

nalley said:
Is bleach and chlorine the same thing? I wouldn’t think bleach would be good with my vynil liner ?

Both are sodium hypochlorite. Bleach is typically sold with additives, scents, fabric protection, etc that should not be added to your pool water.

There is no issue in using liquid chlorine in your pool. Add it slowly at a pool return with the pump running. Brush the area if you wish to mix it in.

zea3 · Aug 25, 2021

Plain, unscented laundry bleach is actually a lower chlorine concentration (6%) than pool chlorine (10-12%). The concentration doesn't matter since you adjust the dose depending on the chlorine concentration. For example if you want to take your free chlorine level from 2 ppm to 5ppm, you would use less 10% chlorine than 6% chlorine to hit that target value. Bleach makes people nervous because it is a strong oxidizer, however the concentration of bleach in a pool is far lower than the concentration of bleach in a load of laundry. Before high efficiency washers became popular, the average washing machine held about 30 gallons of water. If you wanted a nice white load of linens you would add 8 ounces of bleach. Using poolmath, 8 ounces of 6% bleach in 30 gallons of water would be 129 ppm of free chlorine. Conversely, 8 ounces of 6% bleach in 33000 gallons of water is 0.1 ppm of free chlorine. With a CYA of 150 you would need to keep the FC at 16 ppm. If your current FC is 6ppm it would take 6 1/2 gallons of 6% bleach to hit 18ppm. Using liquid chlorine at 10% concentration would take 4 gallons to hit 16 ppm.

So, this is a long winded way of saying you can safely use plain, unscented bleach as a chlorine source if needed.

nalley · Aug 28, 2021

Results below

nalley · Aug 28, 2021

Results below and pool stores recommendations??? Thoughts? Still waiting on my Taylor test kit

nalley · Aug 28, 2021

nalley said:
Results below and pool stores recommendations??? Thoughts? Still waiting on my Taylor test kit

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Chlorine gets eaten up in 1-2days???

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